Sourcing The Best Sauces

October 02 2017At Maws we’ve built our reputation on providing the catering industry and food services with the indispensible culinary item they require on a daily basis, while ensuring that, these ordinary, everyday items, are of the highest possible quality.

We believe that if you use something regularly there’s even more reason to ensure that it’s the best it can possibly be – and falling right into this category comes our carefully assembled selection of pre-prepared and ready-made sauces.

Maws provide all the traditional tracklement and most popular ‘straight to table’ condiment sauces, in commercial quantities and from the manufactures that have become household names, synonymous with the products they create.

That’s why we offer 2ltr volume containers of whole grain mustard, fresh garden mint and tartare sauce, all made by Coleman’s, a British institution in the world of condiments since 1814. We also supply their apple sauce (made using the best English Bramley apples) and fiery horseradish relish, all in generous packs of six 250ml jars, so whether it’s beef, pork, lamb or fish on the menu, there’ll always be plenty of the traditional accompaniments at hand.

Ketchup With Class

Of all the bottled sauces out there on the shelves, the one that’s dominated western food culture like no other in the past century has to be ketchup. Yet before ketchup became synonymous with tomatoes, thanks to the bulk import of cheaply tinned ones from the US at the start of the 20th century, ketchup (a word derived from both ‘kechap’ the Malayasian name for a particularly viscous soy sauce), came in myriad varieties.

Ketchups were developed in the 18th and 19th century as the East India Company roamed the oceans and the need arose for flavourful additives to improve the bland provisions capable of lasting long sea journeys, and long before the ubiquitous tomato, asking for a squirt of ketchup could have seen your dish flavoured with oyster and brandy, mussel, elderberry and anchovy, walnut or mushroom, to name a few.

Today, 97% of US households admit to having a bottle of tomato ketchup stashed somewhere in the kitchen, and although many of these are likely by Hienz, who unquestionably dominate the market t this day, at Maws we prefer the balance of vinegar, sugar, salt and spices found in the ketchup made by Wilkin & Son.

This British firm, established in Tiptree, Essex in 1885, has a heritage of sauce and relish making as long-established as Hienz. Fresh, full and sweet, with a subtle undertone of clove, Tiptree Tomato Ketchup tastes less acidic than the brand leader, with a ‘homemade’ quality that helps it work just as well as an ingredient in marinades or a classic ragu as it does when used as a stand-alone condiment.

Hollandaise To Amaze

Building on the work of the chef Marie-Antoine Carême from the early 19th century, the ‘grandfather of French cuisine’ Auguste Escoffier laid out his thinking about sauces in his classic 1903 textbook, Le Guide Culinaire. “First,” he said, “master the five ‘mother sauces’; béchamel, espagnole, velouté, tomate, and hollandaise.”

Of all the above, arguably the trickiest is hollandaise as, rather than relying on a thickening roux or simply reducing tomatoes, perfect hollandaise relies on melted butter being whisked at a steady drizzle, to prevent curdling, into egg yolks kept at an even temperature to stop them scrambling.

Although well within the skill set of any competent chef, the time-consuming nature of creating good hollandaise is often out of sync with the fast-paced nature of today’s commercial kitchens.

That’s why Maws regularly supply pre-made hollandaise to busy kitchens across the southeast. Created by the expert chefs at Essential Cuisine, with other busy chefs in mind, this versatile Hollandaise Sauce delivers a smooth, rich consistency, exquisite buttery taste and excellent holding qualities, in fact it’s one of the finest we’ve found.

Available by the litre and with and an ambient nine-month shelf life, this is a commercial kitchen staple to always have at hand. Once opened it can last refrigerated for up to three days, and the addition of an extra half-kilo of butter will increase the quantity by 50%.

Then just add tarragon, white vinegar and shallots for Bearnaise, fold in whipped cream for Mousseline, add blanched zest and juice of blood oranges for Maltaise, or horseradish and fresh thyme for Bavaroise, to mention just a few classic variations.

Satisfying Satay

There are many subtle variations of the piquant peanut sauce used to make satay, the dish of seasoned and skewered grilled meats that can range from chicken, pork, goat, beef, fish, and even (in the case Sate Kerbau) water buffalo.

Satay, or sate in Indonesian and Malay spelling, has undoubtedly caught on in the west over recent decades, but in southeast Asia, where it originates, it’s even become Indonesia’s national dish.

Although the term satay actually refers to the preparation and cooking method, in western culture it’s become synonymous with Sate Ponorogo, a speciality from eastern Java originating in the town of the same name. Made using one finger-length fillet of sliced and marinated chicken per skewer, it is traditionally garnished with finely chopped shallots and fiery ‘sambal’ chilli paste after being coated in one of the most popular satay sauce, the essential element of which is ground peanuts.

At Maws we offer a delicious pre-made peanut satay sauce, available in 250ml jars, and ready to help you create fast, effortless and delicious southeast Asian dishes. Mix with sweet soy and shrimp paste to create a range of traditional variants, all perfect served with sticky rice and a zesty Thai salad.

To find all these quality premade sauces, and a host more for further inspiration, visit the ‘Straight to Table’ section of our website.